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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22547590">Three Little Words</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hokay/pseuds/hokay'>hokay</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Check Please! (Webcomic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Gift Exchange, Kissing, M/M, Pillow Talk, The Power Of Love, Three Little Words, brief mentions of nudity and sexual activity, writing exchange</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:40:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,171</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22547590</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hokay/pseuds/hokay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Growing up, Will Poindexter had never heard the words, “I love you.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>130</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bitty's Valentines Collection</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Three Little Words</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/softfloralbro/gifts">softfloralbro</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Growing up, Will Poindexter had never heard the words, “I love you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sure, he knew his family loved him. His dad always praised him when he fixed something around the house. His mom always knew when he needed comfort food. He’d never had to ask for anything he needed because it was always there, ready for him. That kind of love didn’t need words. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dex remembered being at a friend’s house in high school and hearing the ease with which her parents said the words. He remembered thinking how nice it was to have a family that was so open with one another. For the first time, Dex realized that something was missing, and he </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>When he got accepted to Samwell on a full-ride, his dad said, “We’re proud of you, son.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His mom said, “You’ll do so well there, honey.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But they didn’t say, “We love you.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>&lt;&lt;&gt;&gt;</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Life in the Haus was like a movie if the movie always smelled like snickerdoodles and a jockstrap and there was a character perpetually passed out the ugliest couch known to man. Dex was astonished to find that he didn’t really mind. After growing up in a house that always felt stifling even when he was the only one home, the Haus was bright and exciting and warm. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But there was no one who made him think, “I love you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sure, he liked the guys. Shitty was funny, Rans and Holster were dangerously brilliant in a Weasley-twins kind of way, and Bitty was probably the nicest person he’d ever met. Getting up for 5 a.m. practice didn’t seem so daunting when Jack Zimmerman was calling the shots. They all learned how to move together like a team, and Dex appreciated getting to know each one of his teammates - what they liked, what they believed, how they thought. He took all those pieces of knowledge and tucked them inside his brain, saving them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But, if asked, he wouldn’t have said that he </span>
  <em>
    <span>loved</span>
  </em>
  <span> the guys. He didn’t love Nursey. He especially didn’t love Nursey. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Nursey.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>In high school, Dex had seen two kids kissing behind the gym. One was a guy he knew from the hockey team: tall and lanky and quiet. The other was the loudest guy Dex had ever met for how tiny he was; he was the one Dex’s dad always referred to as “something else.” And there they were, tucked away in the shadow of the building, Matthew’s arms crowding Jared in, his face pressed against the smaller boy’s neck as Jared gasped and clung to the back of Matt’s shirt. After a moment, Matt pulled away from Jared and they just looked at each other, completely oblivious to Dex standing by his car, frozen. Jared had smiled softly up at Matt, eyes gentle before his lips moved in a murmur and Matt leaned down, pressing their mouths together in a kiss. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was years later when Jack and Bitty told the Haus they were dating and Nursey had turned to look at Dex, that Dex remembered the look on Jared’s face before Matt had kissed him. He remembered the softness of that moment, and how Matt and Jared easily could have been Jack and Bitty. Only when he thought back to those two bodies, pressed against each other and the brick wall, he didn’t think of Jack and Bitty - he thought of caramel skin and green eyes and the softest, softest brown hair he’d ever seen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he didn’t love Nursey. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>&lt;&lt;&gt;&gt;</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Jesus Christ</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Derek gasped as they came apart, rolling onto his back but still pressed snuggly against Dex’s side. His chest rose and fell as he tried to catch his breath. Dex could sympathize - it felt like his heart was hammering it’s way out with a rubber mallet and sheer determination. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We keep getting better at that,” Derek mused as he ran his fingers thoughtlessly through the mess on his stomach. Dex’s gut tightened with heat. A small noise slipped from the back of his throat and Derek turned those green eyes on him, a smile crinkling the corners as he caught Dex’s look. “Gimme like thirty minutes, man. Three times in a row might be my undoing.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Dex agreed softly, rolling over so he could get up and pad to the bathroom for a wet washcloth. He wiped up his own stomach before rinsing the rag and bringing it back to bed, wiping gently at Derek’s stomach. He could feel his ears burning with the weight of Derek’s eyes on him but he didn’t look up, focused on getting every smear so it didn’t get on the sheets. Dex even captured Derek’s fingers, wiping them clean before he did something embarrassing, like sucking them dry. He took the rag back to the bathroom and crawled back into bed, ears still warm as Derek burrowed Dex’s side, head pillowed on his shoulder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They lay there in silence before Derek raised his head, his sharp chin resting softly over Dex’s heart. “You good?” he asked, eyes searching. “You’ve been pretty quiet lately.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dex ran his fingers through Derek’s hair, up and away from his face. “Just tired with grad school, I guess. Missed you this week.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Derek’s smile was blinding. “I missed you, too. Got all my stories in yesterday just so I could be sure we weren’t interrupted this weekend.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Heat pooled in Dex’s belly, but it was different than before. That had been sharp, a flare of raw neediness that flickered through him like an electric shock. This was heavy, a solid comfort that settled in his core and warmed him up all over. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know my mom collects all your bylines,” Dex said offhandedly. “She subscribed to the Globe just so they could save the articles.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh god,” Derek groaned. “Please do not bring your mother into our bedroom. Especially when I’m naked.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dex chuckled, tightening his hold on Derek. “Sorry, sorry. That’s totally fair.” He pressed a kiss to Derek’s temple, humming softly to himself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He thought about little houses that seemed too big and brick walls. He thought about keeping secrets, especially from himself, and wasting time. He thought about grad school, about press rooms and tiny apartments barely big enough for two men, let alone two men who had played college hockey. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He thought about three words. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nursey?” he murmured. Those green eyes came up and the furnace in Dex’s belly stoked itself into a frenzy. “I love you,” Dex said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Derek stared at him a moment, eyes wide, before he pressed his forehead to Dex’s sternum, gasping a little laugh. Dex’s anxiety started to well in the back of his throat before Derek’s face reappeared, his eyes glinting the dusk light that filtered in through their curtains. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you, too,” he said, heaving up on his elbow so they could kiss. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Derek’s weight settled over him, comfortably familiar, Dex thought that there was something different between knowing and </span>
  <em>
    <span>knowing</span>
  </em>
  <span>. And that sometimes made all the difference. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My first Check, Please! fic and it's Dex and Nursey. These boys, I swear. </p><p>This was written for the Bitty's Valentines exchange over on Tumblr and I had a super fantastic time writing and rewriting this to get it where I wanted for <a href="https://softfloralbro.tumblr.com/">softfloralbro</a>. Happy Valentine's Day, Kris! I hope you love it!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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